What Whop does

Whop operates a two-sided global marketplace for digital goods and services, serving independent creators, entrepreneurs, and the buyers who purchase from them. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, the platform has scaled to approximately 22 million users across 145 countries and processes roughly $4 billion in annual commerce volume, up from ~$100M in 2023. The company has raised approximately $272 million in cumulative funding, most recently a $200 million round from Tether at a ~$1.6 billion valuation, and employs 101–250 people.

The platform's core product is a checkout and distribution layer for digital products — courses, communities, SaaS tools, trading groups, fitness programs, and similar offerings — that creators can sell without building their own commerce stack. The technical surface includes a payment system with proprietary smart-routing ("Whop Pay"), an app ecosystem of embedded components, SDKs, and MCP servers, and AI-powered tooling: a generative "Whop AI" for business creation and Decagon-powered customer service agents reported to deflect 70% of support volume. The platform has no monthly fee and monetises through a 3–30% take rate on transactions.

Whop's business model is take-rate commerce supplemented by an expanding set of adjacent products: Whop Treasury (a yield-bearing stablecoin treasury product built with Tether and Aave), Whop Ads (a native advertising product launched alongside the acquisition of Hidden Studios that monetises first-party buyer data), and international expansion into markets including Pakistan, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The combination of payment processing, embedded apps, AI agents, and stablecoin-native settlement positions Whop as a horizontal commerce and money-movement platform rather than a single-purpose marketplace.

Name

Whop

Legal name

Whop, Inc.

Website

https://whop.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Whop is a two-sided global marketplace for digital goods and services, processing roughly $4B in annual volume across 22M users in 145 countries. It monetises via a 3–30% transaction take rate and is expanding into stablecoin payments, advertising, and AI-agent commerce.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Creator Economy Marketplace

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Merchant-of-Record (MoR) & Payment Facilitation (PayFac) Infrastructure (FSAGABAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Marketplace / Platform Acquiring (PayFac & Sub-Merchant Management) (FSAMABAF), POS, SoftPOS & In-Person Acceptance Infrastructure (FSAGABAO), Bill Pay, Invoicing & Payables Platforms (BPAMAFAF), Marketplace & Platform Seller Payouts (FSAMAKAE)

Keywords

• Digital goods marketplace
• Creator commerce platform
• Payment orchestration software
• Creator monetization infrastructure
• Social commerce marketplace

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Marketplace platform / transaction fees: Whop charges a percentage or flat transaction fee on each sale between buyers and sellers. Effective rates range from approximately 3% to 30% depending on platform and revenue level; per an industry comparison guide, Whop's effective fee structure makes it more competitive than percentage-based peers at scale (over $2,000/month revenue).
2. Whop Ads (advertising revenue): Whop Ads is a built-in advertising product integrated with Meta, providing agency-grade tools to run ads, grow reach, and scale customer acquisition; powered by first-party data from over 22 million buyers on Whop's network.
3. Whop Treasury (yield / financial services): Whop Treasury allows businesses to generate yield on funds held on the platform via Aave-powered yield (6% APY cited for Pepeto, partner-integrated). Generates revenue from yield spreads and platform fees on managed treasury balances.
4. API / platform-as-a-service fees: Whop offers platforms the ability to programmatically accept payments, pay out users, and build businesses on Whop's rails via checkout configurations, transfers, and direct charges with application fees — charging an application_fee_amount on each transaction.
5. Payment processing / multi-PSP routing fees: Whop's smart routing payment orchestration selects optimal PSPs and charges payment processing fees on credit card, bank transfer, and crypto transactions. Lower-fee payment methods (US bank transfer, crypto) are emphasized.
6. Affiliate referral commissions (rev-share): Whop's affiliate program pays referrers a commission on referred sales — either standard per-plan (percentage or flat fee) or rev-share (percentage of revenue, product-specific or company-wide) — via the Affiliates API. Refunds reverse commissions.
7. Stablecoin / on-chain settlement spreads: Whop integrates USDT/USAT stablecoin payments via Tether's Wallet Development Kit; the platform benefits from lower cross-border fees and faster settlement (2-5 minutes on Ethereum/Tron/Solana) vs traditional rails, capturing spread on crypto vs fiat conversion.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion5 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Whop is a social commerce platform and online marketplace that enables creators and digital entrepreneurs to sell access-based digital products such as courses, communities, SaaS tools, memberships, coaching, and digital services to a global audience. The platform bundles payment processing, content delivery, fraud protection, global payouts, and embedded commerce tools into a single monetization stack. Revenue is generated primarily through marketplace transaction fees, with additional income from advertising (Whop Ads), fintech services (Whop Treasury, Whop Spend Card), and developer/API access.

Product overview

Whop is a single unified creator commerce platform that combines a marketplace for digital products, an embeddable commerce infrastructure (Checkout, Wallet, Chat, Forums), and a financial layer (Whop Pay, Whop Treasury, Whop Spend Card). The core Whop marketplace is extended by several modules and products working together: Whop AI generates new businesses via prompts, Whop Ads runs Meta-powered ad campaigns using the Whop Pixel/Conversions API for first-party attribution, and Whop Treasury provides yield via Tether stablecoin rails and Aave. Whop's developer platform — Whop API, Whop Apps, Whop React Native, the iOS Checkout SDK, and the Whop MCP server for AI agents — lets third parties embed Whop's checkout, wallet, chat, and forum components. Acquired brand Hidden Studios powers Whop Ads. The Whop Bug Bounty Program runs alongside as the external security testing program.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Whop Ads: Built-in advertising product on the Whop platform that gives businesses agency-grade tools to run ads, grow reach, and scale customer acquisition, including a Meta integration with prioritized bidding and higher spend limits.
• Whop Treasury

Products and services

• Whop Marketplace The core Whop marketplace platform where independent creators and digital entrepreneurs list and sell access-based digital products such as courses, communities, SaaS tools, memberships, coaching, and services to buyers worldwide, with bundled payment processing, content delivery, and fraud protection.
• Whop Pay A multi-PSP payment orchestration engine with smart routing, fraud and chargeback prevention, and stablecoin support, designed for sellers and platforms that need to accept global payments with high authorization rates and low fraud.
• Whop Ads Whop's advertising network that enables creators and sellers to advertise digital products to Whop's marketplace audience, generating advertising revenue for both the platform and participating sellers.
• Whop Treasury A treasury and balance management product for Whop sellers that helps them manage earnings, hold balances, and optimize payout timing across currencies and rails.
• Whop AI An AI-powered business builder that helps creators and digital entrepreneurs design, launch, and operate digital product businesses using AI-driven workflows for product creation, marketing, and operations.
• Whop API and Whop Apps Whop's developer-facing API and Whop Apps platform that lets SaaS companies, marketplace builders, and developers integrate Whop's payment orchestration, embedded commerce components, and marketplace functionality into their own products.
• Whop Spend Card A card product that lets Whop creators and sellers spend their Whop earnings directly, complementing Whop Treasury and extending the platform's financial services offering.

Quantifiable outcome

• $4 billion in annual commerce processed through the platform
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

AI capability10 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• MetaflagshipTechnology or Integration · 12 May 2026Meta integrated with Whop Ads via a Meta Managed Agency Account that provides prioritized bidding, higher spend limits, and direct platform support. Whop Ads uses first-party data from over 22 million buyers on Whop's network, and Whop plans to expand partnerships to other major ad platforms.
• Hidden StudioscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 May 2026Hidden Studios, a Fortnite minigame studio with proprietary ad technology, was acquired by Whop; its founder Nicholas Motamedi now leads Whop Ads, bringing proprietary ad-tech capabilities into the Whop platform.
• AavecoreTechnology or Integration · 25 March 2026Aave is integrated as a yield-generation partner within Whop Treasury, the new financial product that allows businesses to generate yield on funds held in Whop. The Whop Treasury product combines Tether stablecoin rails with Aave-powered yield (e.g., 6% APY cited in marketing for related products).
• DecagoncoreTechnology or Integration · 19 January 2026Whop adopted Decagon's AI customer support agents, achieving a 70% ticket deflection rate and using Decagon's strategic insights to inform product improvements. Decagon is also a Whop customer.
• BelievecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 July 2025Believe (music industry partner) announced a partnership with Whop, the digital product marketplace, to integrate or co-promote services for creators.
• Iman GadzhicoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 May 2025Iman Gadzhi joined Whop as a co-owner and investor, signaling a new era for digital creators and acting as a high-profile endorser/operator on the platform.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Gumroad: Gumroad is a direct peer: a creator marketplace where individuals sell digital products (courses, communities, software, downloads) to a global audience, taking a percentage of each sale. Same target customer (solopreneur/creator) and same digital-goods transaction model as Whop.
• Patreon: Patreon is a direct peer: a membership-based creator monetization platform enabling creators to sell access to paid communities, courses, and content tiers. Overlaps with Whop on paid groups, creator communities, and recurring digital access products.
• Kajabi: Kajabi is a direct peer offering a creator platform for courses, coaching, communities, and digital products. Targets the same digital entrepreneur persona as Whop, with deeper LMS and email tooling but higher fixed SaaS pricing rather than Whop's transaction-based model.
• Teachable: Teachable is a direct peer providing course creation, hosting, and payment infrastructure for creators selling digital education. Competes with Whop specifically in the coaching & courses use case listed among Whop's primary solutions.
• Lemon Squeezy: Lemon Squeezy is a direct peer acting as a merchant of record for digital goods, subscriptions, and SaaS — handling global tax, fraud, and payouts. Closely aligned with Whop's 'one-stop business platform' pitch for digital sellers, though smaller in scale.
• Circle: Circle is a direct peer for the paid-community use case, providing branded community platforms with payments for creators and coaches. Often integrates with Whop for payments, but competes directly for paid-groups workloads.

Broad incumbents

• Stripe: Stripe is a broad incumbent in payments whose Connect and Checkout products underpin much of the creator-economy infrastructure. Whop's multi-PSP smart routing and global instant payouts directly compete with Stripe's cross-border offering, particularly in markets Stripe does not serve.
• PayPal: PayPal is a broad incumbent in cross-border digital payments and a longstanding default for creator payouts. Whop's Pakistan payout support and stablecoin rails are explicitly positioned as a workaround to gaps in PayPal's global coverage.

Emerging players

• Circle (USDC issuer): Circle is an emerging player in stablecoin payments and treasury infrastructure. As the issuer of USDC, it competes directly with Tether/USDT in the rails Whop has chosen; Circle's payment APIs and CPX overlap with Whop Pay's roadmap.
• Substack: Substack is an emerging player in the creator-economy stack, monetizing writers via paid subscriptions and newsletters. It competes with Whop for the paid-community / digital-content creator persona, though it is narrower in scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/whopio
• GitHubgithub.com/whopio
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@WhopIO
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/whop-io

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors11 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Whop